Ways of addressing others

[ShadowZeroHeart]

I am not good with Japanese, and there are instances where people should be addressed with different terms, so care to share all that is available?

-san
-kun
-nee
etc? and when and how to use them etc? >"<

Also, for example Spice and Wolf uses some ancient ways of calling oneself or others as well, all those can be added here too?

[Krikit]

Okay, here's my current knowledge list of Japanese:

Formality from Highest to Lowest, Male
-dono (Used in older Japanese, such as a servent to his proprietor)
-sama (Used in more modern Japanese, but still not often...Used when addressing people socially much much higher than you.)
-san (Used in regular formal Japanese. Similar to "Mr." but depending on sentence context, there really isn't much of an English way to translate this)
-kun (Used in regular 'less' formal Japanese. An older person to a younger male. Kids amongst themselves, etc.)

The things with the endings is that in english, we don't have much of a base for this. To show formality, add Mr. or Mrs./Ms./Miss/. We don't have anything more complicated than that. If the sentence looks like they're trying to be formal/humble, use Mr./Mrs. Otherwise just call them by whatever name is used.

Formality from Highest to Lowest, Female
-sama
-san
-chan

Same as the males in context.

Now for Spice and Wolf, OLD Japanese:

wacchi - old Japanese version of referring to oneself.
nushi - old Japanese version of referring to the subject of addressing. (similar to 'you')

Old english versions of these sound horrible, as our context is a bit off....example:

wacchi wa krikit desu. -"Mine" name is Krikit-
nushi no namae wa nan desuka? What is "thine" name?

[ShadowZeroHeart]

In KnS, thanks to a dumb polite kid (called R*n) who seems to treat everyone very politely, it was suggested that i use these terms, but i would need those for like calling his father, his sister Ayano, or other elder females, his brother Kazuma, etc... of course, that would probably mean i need one for Kazuma who is rude to his father too... etc etc...
I need all those, all thanks to some dumb kid (called Re*)!

[Krikit]

Hmm....I'm not quite sure what you mean...are you saying Ren (Kazuma's younger brother) told you that you needed to put in alot of honorifics?

Otherwise, here's a rundown of when you might want to say 'Mr.' or something.

Kazuma has distanced himself from his family. He won't call his father 'father', but only uses his name. Does Kazuma even say 'san' to his father? He might say it to Juugo, who he has respect for, but I think he wouldn't say it to his father...actually, can you let me know where in the text honorifics are used?

Or are you trying to figure this out as the Chinese version doesn't have the honorifics?

If that's that case, then I'll have to run to BOOK OFF and pick up a Jap version and try to see when Kazuma is speaking ^_^

[ShadowZeroHeart]

Hmm....I'm not quite sure what you mean...are you saying Ren (Kazuma's younger brother) told you that you needed to put in alot of honorifics?

Otherwise, here's a rundown of when you might want to say 'Mr.' or something.

Kazuma has distanced himself from his family. He won't call his father 'father', but only uses his name. Does Kazuma even say 'san' to his father? He might say it to Juugo, who he has respect for, but I think he wouldn't say it to his father...actually, can you let me know where in the text honorifics are used?

Or are you trying to figure this out as the Chinese version doesn't have the honorifics?

If that's that case, then I'll have to run to BOOK OFF and pick up a Jap version and try to see when Kazuma is speaking ^_^

Kazuma in the chinese text calls Genma father... but it is in a rude manner, i recall seeing something like that in some anime before(maybe KnS? cant recall)
Oyaji? or something like that? his way of calling Genma father is different from how the (darn) Ren calls Genma father... and Ren calls Ayano sister, calls Misao sister, he even calls the elder female in the fast-food sister!! i was adviced to use different terms like -nee and nee-san etc... but i have horrific knowledge in the fields...

[elkin]

Maybe try and go for the modern equivalents? Ren might call Genma 'Father', whereas Kazuma might call him 'pops'. A common translation for 'oyaji' is 'old man', another variation on 'pops'. Unless you're going for the Japanese, in which case we have the honorifics Krikit listed, as well as:

Father
父上殿 ('chichiue-dono')- super polite. 'Honorable Father'.
父上 ('chichiue')
お父さま ('otou-sama')- Father
お父さん ('tou-san')- Father/Dad
父さん ('tou-san')
親父 ('oyaji')- with this kanji it's 'old man' (おやじ can refer to 'gramps' and 'uncle' and such as well)

Older sister
お姉さま ('onee-sama')
お姉さん ('onee-san')
姉さん ('nee-san')
お姉ちゃん ('onee-chan'): -chan is more intimate and casual, reserved for people you know well
姉ちゃん ('nee-chan')
Ren's probably calling every single woman older than him 'onee-san'. You might add variations, depending on how familiar he is with that person. E.g. with Ayano and Misao, he might call them 'Misao-nee' or even 'Aya-nee'.

Older brother
お兄さま ('onii-sama')
'onii-san'
'nii-san'
'onii-chan'
'nii-chan'

That should more or less cover Ren's side of things >.>

Here's a bunch of other things:

'washi': the way old men say 'I'
師 ('-shi'): teacher, master, mentor, religious leader
先生 ('-sensei'): teacher, doctor

Will add more when I've got more time.

[ShadowZeroHeart]

From SnS,
Alastor calls Yuji's mother 夫人
so how do i translate this?
how does it sound like in japanese? if it is good maybe i might use the japanese pronounciation instead?
For now, ma'am will be used

[Vaelis]

From SnS,
Alastor calls Yuji's mother 夫人
so how do i translate this?
how does it sound like in japanese? if it is good maybe i might use the japanese pronounciation instead?
For now, ma'am will be used

夫人 【ふじん(P); ぶにん; はしかし】
(n) (1) (ふじん, はしかし only) (See 婦人) wife; Mrs; madam;
(n) (2) (ふじん only) (arch) wife of a nobleman (aristocrat, etc.);
(n) (3) (ふじん, ぶにん only) (arch) consort of the emperor; (P)

[ShadowZeroHeart]

From SnS,
Alastor calls Yuji's mother 夫人
so how do i translate this?
how does it sound like in japanese? if it is good maybe i might use the japanese pronounciation instead?
For now, ma'am will be used

夫人 【ふじん(P); ぶにん; はしかし】
(n) (1) (ふじん, はしかし only) (See 婦人) wife; Mrs; madam;
(n) (2) (ふじん only) (arch) wife of a nobleman (aristocrat, etc.);
(n) (3) (ふじん, ぶにん only) (arch) consort of the emperor; (P)

Only (1) seems useful... ^^" no 1 is going to call a lady, even if it is in his mind "wife of a nobleman/nobleman's wife" or "consort"

Edit: in SnS, Yuji's mother calls Yuji Yu-***, should it be Yu-kun, Yu-chan, or....? (using Yu-chan until a better choice appears)

[elkin]

Yup, she calls him Yu-chan.

[Krikit]

My friends mother says "Makoto-kun" to him, so I thought that would be more relative to mother-son relationship, but chan...

Seems like she either dotes on him, or baby's him, or else thinks of him as child-like still....otherwise I'd say go for kun...but if the Japanese text says chan...maybe there is something I haven't learned yet ^_^

[onizuka-gto]

yeah, i think when a mother calls her child with "-chan" then its the authors subtle hint to show to the readers that the characters attitude.

She still sees him as a child, a baby to be exact, -kun on the other hand, is almost like a classmate-to-classmate respect, so probably reflects that the mother sees her child in a more mature way.

[ShadowZeroHeart]

So do classmates use mere, kun, chan, san and such honorifics?
In SnS, Tanaka calls out to Kazumi, should it be chan? san? or some other honorific?

[Krikit]

Usually close friends won't use honorifics, as they are still a form of politeness. Then if they are sort of friends, but not close friends, a guy might be called -kun while a girl might be called -chan. Then as they get older and enter the business world, older people and those in more authority are called -san. friends are either -san, or close friends don't have an honorific.

[salv87]

BTW, also saw that sometimes -tan is used..